What the Debt Crisis Tells Us About Ourselves

[James Nored]

This past week our nation narrowly avoided an economic meltdown when the US House and Senate passed a debt limit increase bill and President Obama signed it into law. The entire nation was frustrated over how long and messy this process was; however, it does give us some insight into human nature.

What does this crisis show? First, it shows that people have vastly different, strongly held beliefs. When we encounter people who believe differently than us, it frustrates us. And there is a tendency to “demonize” our opponents. But usually people believe what they believe for good reason. The same is true in a church or a Christian fellowship. We must be careful not to demonize those have different heart passions than we do, but to be kind, loving, and patient with one another.


Second, this crisis shows that strongly held beliefs are not easily put aside. And nor should they be. In politics, the way to resolve these issues is to compromise. Each side gives up something to get something done. What ends up happening, however, is that no one is really happy. Compromise may be the way the government has to be run, but should that be applied to, say, marriage? Do we really want to work out 50-50 solutions in our marriages where no one is happy, and just begrudgingly gives in? Rather than compromise, what the Bible teaches is mutual submission. Paul says, “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ” (Eph. 5:21). Whether in a church or in a marriage, no one should be asked to compromise their beliefs. But on other matters, we should each seek to be seeking the good and happiness of others--not looking for “compromises.”


Third, this crisis shows how little restraint we have in regards to money and spending. People of both parties agree that our nation cannot continue on the financial path that we are on. Our nation owes $14 trillion dollars, and in the next couple of years, we will add another $3 trillion or so in more debt. Unless there are spending reductions and entitlement reforms, our nation is headed towards financial disaster. And yet, despite both parties knowing this, they each have programs that they do not want to cut.

Just like in the government, in life or in a marriage, we cannot buy everything that we see or want. It is little surprise that our government is in debt, for the average American holds $14,000 in credit card debt. Sometimes medical emergencies or the like arise. But in many if not most cases, this is the result of simply buying things that we want but cannot afford. And this puts people in bondage. We could learn a lot about what not to do in our lives from this government debt crisis.

[Bill Bowman]

What this has shown me is that the government has hidden certain important facts concerning the debt picture so we will not draw certain conclusions that make the government look even worse.

Here is what I am led to believe: compare the government problem with a family that has an income of $15,000 per year.  Using the same ratio as the government problem, by balancing the budget, the family debt is $75000 now brought down to $15,000.  But the credit card debt is $370,000!!!  This gives an estimation of where we are with our government.  If we did balance the budget of the USA, our long term debt is still in the trillions of dollars!!!  No wonder the Standard and Poors downgraded our credit!!  They had good reason to.

 

Now look at the church situation.  The big lesson is for the leaders to feed the members the correct and accurate dollar numbers  so the conclusions are made on realities of the situation, not on a skewed, dishonest assessment.